Donno's cam changing adventures - ouch

[donno]

Well today in the mail arrived a wade 1636, two days earlier than I expected. From there everything tended to go downhill.

Disconnected the accellerator and cruise cables no problems. Then the fun started. The hose connected to the PCV valve came off fine, but the one at the back of the rocker cover would not budge. Dad and I tried for about 1hr, until we went stuff it and put a small slit in the bottom, eventually releasing its grip.

Next drama was the rear most of the rubber washers on top of the cover. The front 3 came off easily, but this one wouldn't budge, so we went stuff it, it'll come off with the rocker cover. And by george it did, dissappearing somewhere down the rear of the engine, and what we thought might have been down one of the oil journals. After searching for another hour with no sign, we gave up, but the show carried on.

The fun didn't stop there. Allready flustered, I started to take off the rockers (yes at least I did one thing right and put a few rags in the oil journals). All the bolts off ready to go, dad asks, aren't you supposed to have it at TDC first then crack the cam bolt? Well, I didn't think it'd make much difference, but decided better to follow the manual. So back one with the rockers. Done all the nuts up finger tight, and started with 10Nm with the torque rench (gregory's says 25). First bolt. SNAP! By this time, I'm swearing rather loudly. I thought bugger it, get them snug by spanner, and then get it at TDC. Couldn't fit my hand down in front of the clutch fan with the spanner, so I put the car in 1st and rolled it fowards. Now at TDC, Dad cracked the cam bolt, and undid the rocker bolts with baited breath to see what damage I had done.

The bolt snapped off almost perfectly level with the head. Almost in tears, I left dad with the broken bolt while I consorted cleaning out the lash adjusters, and out of all 12, not one had a retainer left in one piece.

Tink, I hear next to me hear the concrete. WTF is this? Half a snapped bolt. After doing the can can, I asked dad what deal did he make with the devil to get it out. Apparantly it was just sitting in there loosely, and after a quick inspection, no damage done to the head. The bolt was stretched way out of proportion. At last a turn of good luck, but there was still a missing rubber washer, probably floating around in my sump.

After pedantic searching for 1.5hrs over the back of the engine and the bellhousing, grabbing at random places, I had a brainstorm to flush it with the hose, and if it was there, it wouldn't escape a torrent of water. But alas nothing. About to give up for the day, dad had a scratch around with a piece of wire, knocking the washer to the ground, I couldn't believe it. Now it was time to call it a day, and to rub moisturiser into the back of my cramping, sunburnt legs.

So a few of questions at then end of the day must be begged.

1: Is 25Nm the correct torque for the rocker assembly bolts? Dad doen't trust the alloy heads above about 5.
2: Is the thread in the alloy head steel sleaved or something to handle the pain?
3: Since I'm not really trusting anything to do with a torque wrench anymore, how tight should the bolts be done up with a spanner? Dad seems to thing bottom it, then 1/4-1/2turn.
4: What on earth is the point of the retainers if they bust so easily?
5: Does the end float need to be checked on the reground cam?

Stay tuned for my wacky adventures on tomorrow, day 2. Cheers.

Donno

[Damo]

25 nm is correct, i'm surprised it snapped. If you are worried though, just do them up *tight* make sure they all sitting down etc.

Sounds like you had nothing but bad luck, a cam change should onl take a few hours and a few beers. Good luck for tommorrow.

no the alloy head dont have steel sleeves unless the thread has been stripped before and a heli-coil has been fitted

the retainers go hard and should be changed anyway when pulling apart the lifters and re-assembling them.

[EA2BA]

I snapped a few bolts and had the same thing, they were just loose and i spun them out by hand without to much effort.

TDC is a good idea, but if you put a few cable ties on the sprocket and chain then put the cam to the sprocket first the rest will just follow and fall in place.

[donno]

Well day 2 has fared a fair bit better. Went to the local ford spares to get the rubber rocker cover gasket, shims and bolt, walking out with only the gasket. They orriginally wanted $55 for it, but one of my school mates works behind the counter and knocked it back to $45, which is damn good for where I live, considering they wanted $4.80 for a shim, and the bolts were over the $9 mark each.

Off to the wreckers I went with not much hope, but ended up getting all 12 shims, plus 2 replacement bolts for $10. The only thing left was the retainers, which the local autopro could order in overnight for $35. So with any luck, all should be running tomorrow arvo.

[Voxace]

I'd say it snapped because there was oil in the holes. Before you tighten them all up try to get as much oil out of the holes as you can.

[donno]

Thanks for the tip voxace, never thought of that.

Well the cam is in and the car is running fine, only stalled once with powersteering and aircon running. Only thing is one lash adjuster is still ticking after about 20 minutes of running. I think its either cylinder 3 or 4 on the exhaust side. I've heard you can run the engine without the rocker cover on so you can pin point it, but i'm a bit weary of oil going everywhere. So should I just give it more time (how long?), or take the cover off, find out which one and swap it out with a newbie? Cheers for the replies.

[1FLYRYD]

hey dude, which model thermo fans did u use, i have an EA wif an intec 4.0l conversion but still rans the clutch style setup i don't like it, it dirties my engine bay
cheers dude

Originally Posted by Voxace

I'd say it snapped because there was oil in the holes. Before you tighten them all up try to get as much oil out of the holes as you can.

ive never heard of that, and everytime ive changed cams i never got the oil out.. also when assembling the engines they usually brush the threads of the bolts with oil to stop them from seizing up/grabbing.

with the ticking lifter get a flat blade screwdriver and put the plastic handle to your ear, then put the end of the screw driver on the rocker cover and listen for the "tick" you will know it when you hear it the noise gradually gets louder as you get closer to it. i found out which one of mine was a dud doing this and i still havent changed it :P

[InitialD]

Originally Posted by John_xr6

With the ticking lifter get a flat blade screwdriver and put the plastic handle to your ear, then put the end of the screw driver on the rocker cover and listen for the "tick" you will know it when you hear it the noise gradually gets louder as you get closer to it. i found out which one of mine was a dud doing this and i still havent changed it :P

I took your advice john and applied this to the injectors, also works on them :P

(btw no dud lifter, dud injector instead)

[ratter]

Originally Posted by John_xr6

ive never heard of that, and everytime ive changed cams i never got the oil out.. also when assembling the engines they usually brush the threads of the bolts with oil to stop them from seizing up/grabbing.

:P

If there is a puddle of oil sitting in the bottom of the thread bore, it will stop the bolt from screwing down completey as the oil will not compress. oil the threads is not the same as a puddle of oil sitting in the thread bore.

[donno]

Originally Posted by John_xr6

with the ticking lifter get a flat blade screwdriver and put the plastic handle to your ear, then put the end of the screw driver on the rocker cover and listen for the "tick" you will know it when you hear it the noise gradually gets louder as you get closer to it. i found out which one of mine was a dud doing this and i still havent changed it :P

Used a ruler instead, but yeah, don't know if its 3 or 4 so rocker cover will have to come off unless it settles down :S.

yeah i get what ya mean re-oil, but i havent had issues with the bolts not tightening up, also how can that break a bolt when undoing it?

[ratter]

It reads that he is doing the bolts up again to turn to TDC, he also says that he was using a tension wrench, you only use a tension wrench to tighten, not loosen.